Fifty-one years ago today, on September 12, 1974 (July 26, 1974), the Ethiopian Revolution broke out. The Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown by a group of radical military officers. On September 12, 1974, the National Democratic Revolution broke out in Ethiopia. After the victory of the War of Resistance against Italy in 1941, Ethiopia remained a feudal state ruled by emperors, nobles and high-ranking monks. In the early 1970s, society was in a full-scale crisis. In January 1974, anti-government movements broke out among people of all walks of life, demanding the allocation of land, the release of political prisoners, freedom of the press, freedom of religious belief, and the abolition of the supremacy of Amharic. Young officers and nationalists formed the "Coordination Committee of the Army, Police and Local Armed Forces". In July, Mengistu became the chairperson of the Coordination Committee. The group arrested most of the government ministers. On September 12, it announced the dethronement of Selassie I, the abolition of the old constitution, the overthrow of the monarchy, the establishment of the highest authority, the Provisional Military Administrative Council, with Mengistu as chairperson. On December 20, the military regime declared Ethiopia a socialist country. The military regime also announced the dissolution of the old trade unions and the establishment of the All-Egyptian Trade Union and the All-Egyptian Peasant Association; the nationalization of industry, commerce and land; the abolition of private ownership of land and the implementation of land reform; the organization of agricultural production cooperatives and state farms; the development of rural health and cultural education. Haile Selassie